Materiality and Aesthetic Transformation. The Festa teatrale L'Huomo at the Margravial Opera House Bayreuth
Final Report Abstract
The project was dedicated to the Festa teatrale L’Huomo (Libretto: Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, Music: Andrea Bernasconi and others), a large-scale Italian Baroque opera with virtuoso singing, dancing, chorus and elaborate stage sets. It was performed in 1754 on the occasion of a visit by King Frederick II to the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth and represents a highlight of Baroque opera culture. Thanks to the good state of preservation of the house (a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012), this operatic culture can still be experienced in Bayreuth. The aim of the project was to gain in-depth knowledge of Wilhelmine von Bayreuth's artistic strategies through a scholarly prepared and historically informed performance of this work at the original venue and to enable a twofold transfer to practice and the wider public: 1. by integrating the project results on various levels (textual, auditory, visual, etc.) into the Opera House Museum in Bayreuth, which opened in April 2023; 2. through a highquality, historically informed performance (music director: Dorothee Oberlinger) and recording of the work by Bayerischer Rundfunk on the basis of the musical material developed in the project. The project also produced a critical edition, which is published by Schott publishing house, thus making the work accessible for further research and artistic practice. The findings from the 2023 performance were in turn used for further academic research. The project documentation and several essays present findings on Wilhelmine von Bayreuth's visual strategies and the extraordinary conception of the work in this respect, as well as on the artists at the Bayreuth court (particularly in the areas of singing and dancing) and – made possible by the historically informed staging (stage director: Nils Niemann) – on the relationship between corporeal and musical gestures. These results are also highly relevant for research into baroque opera beyond the Bayreuth court. The project was carried out as a transfer project with three project partners (Musica Bayreuth, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Gärten, Schlösser und Seen).
Publications
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Al mio impero: "L’Huomo", in: Maria Blenk, Tanja Kohwagner-Nikolai, Cordula Mauß, Florian Schröter (Hrsg.): Barocke Theaterwelten. Markgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth: Welterbe & Museum, München 2023, S. 93
Knaus, Kordula & Andrea Zedler
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Ein Bayreuther Forschungsprojekt auf Reisen, in: L’Huomo, Musica Bayreuth und Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci (Hrsg.), Bayreuth und Potsdam 2023
Knaus, Kordula
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Ein Theatral-Fest für den König! Wilhelmine von Bayreuths L’Huomo im Markgräflichen Opernhaus
Knaus, Kordula & Andrea Zedler
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Nicht nur von der Muse geküsst. Wilhelmines Tanzmeister Jean- Baptiste Gherardy zwischen Paris, Bayreuth und London
Zedler, Andrea
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Wilhelmines Mensch galant gekleidet, in: L’Huomo, Musica Bayreuth und Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci (Hrsg.), Bayreuth und Potsdam 2023
Zedler, Andrea & Babette Hesse
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Festmusik mit persönlicher Note. Artes, 3(1), 85-103.
Knaus, Kordula & Zedler, Andrea
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Künstlerische (Un-)Abhängigkeiten. Wilhelmine von Bayreuth und Friedrich II. von Preußen revisited. (Wahl-)Verwandtschaften, 83-100. Böhlau Verlag Köln.
Knaus, Kordula & Zedler, Andrea
